6 On the Koumiss of the Calmucks. 
and effectual operation of this machine, after six years ex 
perience, has occasioned another to be lately erected in 
Bacon-close mine, near the same place. . 
On the Confusion arising from affixing new and separate 
Ideas to established Marks or Words. 
I cannot, sir, while the pen is in my hand, refrain from 
noticing the inconsiderate proposal of your correspondent 
Mr. A. Reirtalp, at page 397 of your last volume, to further 
bewildering the meaning of the marks'” '”, so long and 
usefully applied to the sexagesimal divisions of the quadrantal 
arc of acircle: as if it were not enough, that some write ’ and 
“instead of m and s, to designate minutes and seconds of 
time, &c. and that the reformers of the French denomina- 
tions of magnitudes have applied °,',”, ”, to the dectmat 
divisions of the quadrant, as well as the names degree, 
minute, second, &c. which is perhaps the most powerfal 
among the reasons, that this centenary division has not been 
more adopted. 
oi. Sil. 
Your obedient servant, 
Westminster, Nov. 6, 1510. Jou N FAREY. 
II. Of the Koumiss of the Calmucks, and of the ardent 
Spirit which they distil from Milk. By Epwarp DANIEL 
LARKE, LL.D.* 
Every body has heard of the koumiss and the brandy 
which the Calmucks are said to distil from the milk of 
mares. The manner of preparing these liquors has been 
differently related, and, perhaps, is not always the same. 
They assured us that the brandy was merely distilled frony 
butter-milk.. Fhe milk which they collect over night is 
churned in the morning into butter; and the butter-milk 
is distilled over a fire made with the dung of their cattle, 
particularly the dromedary, which makes a steady and clear 
fire, like peat. But other accounts have been given both 
of the koumiss and the brandy. It has been usual to con- 
found them, and to consider the koumiss as their appella- 
tion for the brandy so obtained. By every information F 
could gain, not only here, but in many other camps which 
we afterwards visited, they are different modifications of the 
same thing, a'though aiieralsh liquors; the koumiss being 
* From Clarke's Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia,and Africa, 
Part I. p. 238, 239, and 259. 
a kind 
